I think that they are a part of fuselage design and are not removable. FAST packs were developed for the F-15C but I don’t think that they were ever used.I have never seen an F-15E without them, I think it is very rare they fly without them.
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USN may add conformal fuel tanks to F/A-18E/F fleet
- Thread starter delta215
- Start date
From an article that I can't seem to find right now...what the E/F/G conformal tanks increase in weight/drag is offset by the increase in lift from their positioning over the lex. Also the IRST that has been developed for the export model would be nice in addition to the extra muscle and fixing the pylon problem
Is that a C or an E? I've never seen an E without them.
Look outside the airplane.
The paintjob is wrong, but you can make out a second canopy rail aft of the place the one on the chuck would be.....so I'm guessing E
Nice catch.
Of course, now that I think about it, the photo could be a FMS F-15D or something given the paint. No idea really.
I remember seeing photos of eary Es used for weapons tests at Tyndall painted in light grey.
Isn't that the Stars and Bars in low-vis in front of the intake?
eppsdedude, where you beeeen hiding, you haven't posted in a coon's age? Welcome back!
BzB
I would need a photoshop with a circle over what you are talking about as I have had too much woodford to see such minutia. I would put money on the apparent era of the photo being late 1980's/early 1990's and either a developmental E or possibly a test D used for the same purpose.
Armament stencil
F-15C's have two canopy rails. The F-15E conformal tanks are removable, but they seem to pretty much always be attached. They have a lot of hardpoints for bombs. On that note, I bet the F-15 in that picture isn't an E. It seems set up for missiles, not bombs. The tanks on the C seem to have only one row of racks for AMRAAM's. The E in the earlier picture has more racks on the conformal tanks meant for bombs. Here's a C with tanks. http://www.airliners.net/photo/0766781/M/
